University of Virginia Library

17. CHAPTER XVII.
An irruption of wandering Arabs, and a swarming of Bees.

I have before noticed the inroads made upon the
virtuous simplicity of the rural populace among
whom is laid the scene of this history. Not content
with a variety of innovations, the officers at
length committed the enormity of introducing private
theatricals. They corrupted an honest Dutchman
of the neighborhood to hire them his barn, which
was fitted up as a theatre, and in which they performed
plays three times a week, to the utter dismay
of the good Dominie Stettinius, who justly saw
in this pestilent innovation the seeds of mischief to
his hitherto simple and innocent flock. The young
people were attracted by these outlandish shows,
and late hours, family feuds, nightly elopements,
and sometimes something worse, were the consequences.
The good and pious dominie sighed and
fretted at these melancholy symptoms of approaching
corruption of manners, and raised his voice from the
pulpit every Sabbath-day against the theatre and its
consequences to his beloved people, over whom he had
watched for almost half a century. But the torrent
was too strong for the good man to put back or turn
from its course; for such is the sad weakness of
human nature, that the best security for its innocence
is to keep it ignorant of the very existence of guilt.
Both manners and morals seem every where at the

mercy of strangers and innovators—of fashions
rather than opinions.

But, as if this were not enough, about the period
in which the seductions of the barn theatre began
to infect the morals and habits of the young people,
and their consequences to appear in the indications
I have just recited, a famous new-light preacher
made his appearance among them, and roused the
very echoes with a strain of fervid and impassioned
eloquence, which created a sect that seems one day
destined to extend itself to every climate and every
country of the habitable world. The sober, practical,
and rational doctrines and exhortations of the
good dominie, though clothed in the language and
embellished with the eloquence and grace of a
scholar, faded into nothing compared with the trumpet
voice, violent gesture, and furious declamation
of the new apostle. His fold, especially the precious
young lambs that had grown up under his eye,
and whom he loved, began to stray away; his flock
every Sabbath showed the absence of some one that
was never absent before; and many an empty seat
gave token of the backsliding of some inexperienced
soul, lured away from the gentle lustre of his pure
lamp of truth by the flaring, fiery tail of this erratic
meteor.

And still another evil came to beset and confound
the good man, and complete the wicked trio. A
member of the wandering tribe of American Arabs
came among and seduced the wayward affections
of the daughter and heiress of his ancient and
nearest neighbour, honest Yof Vandervelden. He
taught certain practices then exceeding rife in the
region whence he came; and the short and the long
of it was, the worthy man found himself under the

necessity of making a sacrifice of his dislike, to the
honour of the family. He soon afterward died, and
Ananias Gookin, as the wandering Arab was called,
took possession of the estate in right of his wife.
Then were the honest Dutchmen astonished, confounded,
and dismayed at the innovations and improvements
of Ananias. He altered his house, he
altered his barn, he altered his fences, and he altered
every thing. When he had done altering, and exhausted
all his ingenuity, he began to pull down,
and, finally, one day abducted the old Dutch weathercock,
which was brought from Holland, and had
pointed due north upon the top of the mansion of
the worthy Vandervelden far back as the memory
of man could reach.

The dominie groaned in spirit, and his firmness
forsook him, especially when a day or two afterward
a whole wagon load of Squire Gookin's cousins
came over to pass a week with him. Before
that week expired, they had so confounded the good
man with guessing and asking questions, that one
night, after being penned in a corner of one of his
own fields for upwards of three hours by a couple
of these terrible guessers, who pointed out a hundred
improvements in his modest, comfortable glebe,
and expressed an intention of opening a school to
teach all the children English, the good dominie
left his flock to be devoured by the wolves, and
never returned. He had heard of the arrival of a
Dutch ship at New-York, whither he bent his way
sorrowing, and whence he embarked for his native
honest Holland to return no more. He left a letter
with his blessing and advice to Sybrandt, accompanied
by a fine folio copy of the works of Hugo Grotius,
in token of his affectionate remembrance. Honest

soul! the simplicity of religion and manners which
he advocated and exemplified during his whole life,
have, we doubt, been illy exchanged for the cant
of enthusiasm in the one, and boasted refinements
in the other.

These details, which proved mutually interesting,
were at length interrupted by a confused and triumphant
medley of sounds and voices that made them
both start in dismay. They ran into the garden,
whence the noise proceeded, to see what was the
matter, where they found Ariel at the head of all
the household troops, man, woman, and child, black,
white, and gray. He was furiously beating a
frying-pan, accompanied by all the others, each of
whom had contrived to reinforce his music by some
rare contrivance of his own. Here stood old
Nauntje, the cook, jingling a great bunch of keys;
and there our old friend Tjerck, who had been summoned
by Ariel for the occasion, beating a tin kettle
with an old rusty ramrod, while the little imps of
the kitchen exaggerated the terrible discord by
mustering a most singular variety of incongruous
discords. Over all was heard the shrill voice of
Ariel, scolding, directing, restraining, and aggravating
his familiars as occasion seemed to require.

A little condensed black cloud appeared hovering
ever their heads, and sailing about in different directions
among the trees, to which all their attention
seemed to be directed. As it inclined to approach
or recede, the concert became weaker or
louder, while eager anxiety and expectation sat on the
faces of all. More than once Ariel denounced the
imperial Nauntje as an “old fool,” for jingling her
keys too loud; and many a time did Nauntje retort,
by declaring “Massa Ariel would scare the creatures

into the woods,” by the vehemence with which
he cudgelled his frying-pan. At length the little
wayward community, after enjoying a while their
emancipation from the domination of the mother-hive,
all at once darted down and settled themselves
upon the broad-brimmed hat of honest Ariel; being
thereunto incited either by one of the female caprices
of the queen bee, or by a fine carnation pink stuck
in the hatband.

Consternation and dismay followed this unaccountable
manœuvre; the music ceased, and Ariel
stood still for once in his life, with a whole nation
quartered on his beaver. It was impossible to resist
an inclination to laugh at the oddity of the adventure,
but in truth it was no laughing matter. Of
all the populace of this world, the bees are the most
capricious; there are some people they will permit
to handle them with impunity, while they will dart
at others with indescribable fury the moment they
approach them. I have seen a swarm of young
bees taken up by handfuls and put into the new
hive, without any symptoms of hostility, by a person
who either possessed some secret power, or to
whom they were attracted by some unaccountable
affinity. Such a man was old Tjerck, who now
came cautiously forward with a new straw hive,
which he held directly over the head of Ariel, desiring
him at the same time to stand still for his
life. Poor Ariel was the last man in the world to
stand still, or to hold his tongue; but on this occasion
he played the statue to a miracle. There never
was a finer figure than Ariel with the great beehive
for a hat, except a fine lady of the year 1831 in a
fashionable Parisian bonnet. While the bees were
consulting in mysterious hummings about the expediency

of removing, and some of them were reconnoitring
about his ears, apparently with an intent
to make a lodgment there, the little man stood
fidgetting, first lifting one leg then the other, hitching
his shoulders, and making divers other gestures
indicative of dire impatience. At length he could
stand it no longer, and roared out—

“You bloody old fool, do you think I am going
to stand still here all day?” And thereupon the
whole swarm took flight and disappeared across the
river, whether alarmed at the noise, or from some
sudden caprice of her majesty the queen bee.

“Dere—dere he go; now massa Ariel got him,”
exclaimed Tjerck, in the bitterness of his heart.
“I glad of it.”

“And so am I,” said Ariel; “they may go to the
d—l for me. I wouldn't have stood still three
minutes longer for as many beehives as could stand
between here and Jericho.”

“No,” grumbled Tjerck, in an under-tone; “massa
Ariel nebber tand till, sept when he sleeping in
church.”

“Huh!” said old Nauntje; “massa Ariel don't
know no more about bees dan a bull's foot.”

Ariel swore there was not a man in the province
understood hiving bees better; but they all gave it
against him, and declared with one voice that the loss
of the young swarm was entirely owing to his not
standing still and holding his tongue. Upon this
he denounced them as “a pack of fools,” and departed
in wrath, determined not to stay to dinner.
In passing the kitchen, however, his natural instinct
prompted him to look in, and the sight of a fine
roasting pig, with a skin as white as that of a
fashionable belle after a winter's campaign, disarmed

him in a moment. He hovered round the hallowed
precincts of the kitchen till the return of queen
Nauntje, to whom he gave sundry directions about
roasting the pig, concluding by a solemn injunction
to put plenty of summer savory in the stuffing.

Dinner passed off pleasantly, and Sybrandt was
delighted to find that he drank wine with Catalina
without its going down the wrong way; nay, that
he could actually cut up a pig when everybody
was looking at him, without falling into an agony.
In the evening they strolled out upon the lawn, and
stood on the low green banks of the gliding river,
watching the passing vessels as they slipped along;
listening to the melodies of lowing herds, tinkling
bells, loud rural laughs, and all the combination of
sweet peaceful sounds, wafted across the little river
in the delicious quiet of a long summer twilight.
Sybrandt gradually became inspired by the scene
and the occasion; and unlocking, by involuntary
degrees, the stores of his mind, and giving wings to
the dormant vigour of his imagination, delighted, instructed,
and almost astonished Catalina with the
inspirations of his new-born intellect.

While thus engaged, they saw one of the little
black boys come running towards them in great
haste, as if something was the matter at home.
When he came up all he could say was to beg Sybrandt
to speed to the house, for Hans Pipe, the
Indian, was there very drunk. Accordingly Sybrandt
hastened away as fast as possible, leaving
Catalina to return at leisure.